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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1226515, member: 289"] THE KICKING GAME Then: [I]Ross Krautman appeared to be on his way to setting all kinds of kicking records here. As a freshman, he hit 16 field goals in a row and 18 of 19 overall, both tying SU records. But he was less steady 15 for 23 his second year and 1 for 2 last year until it was revealed he had a chronic hip injury. He announced just before this season that he was giving up his football career. Very sad. That leaves us with Ryan Norton, our kick-off man as our place-kicker. Last year, filling in for the injured Krautman he was 10 for 15. The coach said that he had the leg but not yet the timing. We’ll see if he has that timing down this season. Riley Dixon is an excellent punter, a rare one who can not only launch it when he has to but can place the ball, too, including coffin corner kicks. For years our kick-off returns have tended to be interrupted very suddenly at the 20 yard line. Coach says he’s increased the number of linebackers on the roster from 8-9 to 13-14 to get better special teams coverage. Hopefully they can give us some good blocking as well. Meanwhile, our punt returners were raising their arms for a fair catch even before the punter’s foot made contact with the ball. Our kick returners were giving our struggling offense absolutely no help whatsoever. But now we have Brisley Estime, who will be returning punts and, from one report, may be returning kick-offs as well, (with Erv Phillips: they would make quite a combination). The more times we can get the ball in the Salt Badger’s hands, the more special this season will be. [/I] Now: Ryan Norton was quickly disposed of after missing three of 7 field goals. Cole Murphy was not automatic, (unlike Norton, he missed an extra point), but clearly better at 13 for 16, with two rom 50+. He’s a freshman so we should be in good shape for several years to come with the place-kicking. Unfortunately, we have a history of teams in recent years whose MVP was probably the punter and his was one of them. Riley Dixon was a versatile punter who could boom it or place it. He also held for place-kicks and won the Villanova game with a fake field goal and pass for a score, (he’s our emergency quarterback and almost got pressed into service). He also ran 42 yards on another fake. However, the ACC had some exceptional punters this year and Riley, who became somewhat erratic down the stretch, was out-punted by several of them. Still, he finished second in the conference at 42.4. He’ll be back next year so our kicking should be very good again. Brisley Estime never got a chance to do much due to his ankle injuries. Erv Phillips tried his best but we could never spring him on the kick-offs. Ritchy Desir took over the punt return duties, (which he had prior to Estime), but mostly fair caught the ball, (we retuned only 23 of 63 punts on the season). It’s very frustrating when we can’t give a struggling offense help with big plays on special teams. All those injuries didn’t help because when guys play in both scrimmage plays and special teams plays, as happens when you have a lot of injuries and you have to use your back-ups for those scrimmage plays. We not only didn’t score on any return but gave up three TDs on kick returns. OVERALL: Next year we’ll play the first three games in the Dome. The first two are against Rhode Island and central Michigan. We should win those. (We’d better!). The third is a likely loss against LSU. Then we go on the road to play a South Florida team that was 4-8 last year. That’s a good chance to go into conference play 3-1. There will probably be a bye somewhere in there. Having a bye after the first game and not again until after the 10th game was an issue this year and hopefully they will be better positioned next year. We will have to go on the road to play Louisville and Florida State. I don’t know who we will play in the other division. I think the goal will be to come into the conference 3-1 and at least earn a split in the conference. That will put us in a bowl game and hopefully we can win it. That will signal to recruits that 2014 was an anomaly and the talent level will continue to increase. I think if we get good luck with the injuries, he have a chance to do that. But there’s not a lot of room for error and the consequences of another failure could be dire. We can be a lot better than we were this year with the talent we’ve got and then we could recruit the talent we need to get a lot better than that. Or not. [/QUOTE]

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